Stop the Traffic 2 - Fact Sheet

Stop the Traffic 2 (2003)

Fact Sheets : Trafficking in Women and Children

Fact Sheet: Trafficking in Women and Children

Definition of Trafficking

(a) “Trafficking in persons ”shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;

(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used. 1

Scope

The number of trafficked people is difficult to estimate. It is believed that 700,000 to two million women and children are trafficked across international borders every year, 2 and the UN estimates that 4 million people in total are trafficked both across borders and within states. The UN also estimates that trafficking is a US$5-7 billion operation annually. 3 Estimates of the number of women trafficked into Australia vary from a handful to 1000-1500 a year.

Abuses

Trafficked women and children may experience the most horrifying abuses, such as rape; physical abuse, including beatings with weapons; threats and violence against them and their family; verbal abuse; imprisonment; little or no access to health care; minimal food, and of poor quality; dirty and cramped living conditions; forced abortions; and forced use of drugs and alcohol.

Trafficked women and children are kept in an environment of fear, and are thus vulnerable to being exploited by pimps, corrupt immigration officials and police, and the men who create the demand for prostitutes.

Causes of Trafficking

• Unemployment and underemployment, poverty, and lack of access to education all contribute to women seeking either overseas work, or employment in dangerous sectors.
• The scarcity of legitimate migration options for women leads them to seek other means of migration, so that they can provide for themselves and their families.
• Inequalities between men and women and gender stereotypes that sexualise vulnerable women.
• Natural disasters and wars lead to homelessness, loss of jobs, and economic downturn, pushing women into more undesirable sorts of work.
• violence against women, including domestic violence, which makes women seek ways to leave their home country to find safety and security elsewhere.
• The low-risk, high-profit nature of trafficking makes it attractive to criminals.

1. United Nations. 2000. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime .

2. Richard, Richard, Amy O'Neill. 1999. International Trafficking in Women to the United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime . Washington DC: Center for the Study of Intelligence, p. 3.

3. Article Premier et. al. 2001. Guide to the New UN Trafficking Protocol . North Amherst: CATW, p.1.